Convert Your AT&T HTC One into HTC One Developer Edition and get Sense 6.0

Who doesn’t hate carrier branding of beautiful and powerful devices? Carriers actually cripple the full potentials of the phones/devices and make unnecessary delays in getting software updates. So, if you have a SIM-unlocked AT&T HTC One (or T-Mobile version) outside USA, chances are you are not getting the OS upgrades in time, even not at all. Sure, there are ways to flash the update manually (OTA.zip ir RUU file), but how about turning your phone into the HTC One Developer Edition, which ensures updates directly from HTC and lesser carrier bloats? Moreover, the developer edition is one of the very firsts to get any software updates. There are some extra settings (such as, ability to select GSM/WCDMA/LTE radio) in the developer edition. So lets get our hands dirty and turn our beloved AT&T HTC One into HTC One Developer Edition.

1. Unlock the bootloader by collecting the Unlock_code.bin file from htcdev.com

From Settings > Power, uncheck the “Fast boot”. Then turn off your device. Wait for a few seconds. Turn on the device with the volume down button pressed. This will take you to bootloader mode. Using the volume up/down keys, select FASTBOOT and connect your device to your PC using a USB cable. On the device screen, you should see FASTBOOT USB.

Now open a terminal window on your PC (I am assuming you have adb and fastboot installed. If not, search Google for “Minimal ADB and Fastboot” and install it). Type the following command:

fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin

On the device screen, you will have to choose YES using the vol up/down keys and Power button. This will unlock your device’s bootloader and wipe your device completely. Your phone will reboot.

Enter the bootloader mode again as described before. In the terminal windows, write the following code to flash the custom recovery:

fastboot flash recovery twrp-recovery-2.7.0.4b-m7-20140408.img

Now reboot your device. Download your favorite SU binary zip and copy it to your phone. I used UPDATE-SuperSU-v1.65.zip.

Turn off your device and enter bootloader mode again. It should show TAMPERED and UNLOCKED but S-ON now.

Select RECOVERY from the bootloader menu. This will reboot the device into TWRP recovery. Navigate to the SU zip file and flash it. Upon completion of the flash, wipe cache.

3. Get S-OFF using RumRunner

Now that we have a rooted device, we can use rumrunner. Download rumrunner_HTC_0.5.0.zip. Extract it. Connect your phone (turned on) to the PC and enable USB Debugging from Settings>Developer Options. On your PC, from the extracted rumrunner folder, run the sojo.exe in administrator mode.

For rumrunner to run, you need to be connected to the internet (I don’t know why). Also, the process will be easier if you – a) turn off all screen securities, b) connected your device to the PC in adb mode and fastboot mode at least once before running rumrunner (this will ensure if you have proper drivers installed or not). It will take some time for rumrunner to get S-OFF. Your device will reboot many times, don’t worry, this is normal.

So, now we have a tampered, unlocked, S-OFF device.

4. Change MODELID and CID to Flash Developer Edition ROM

Turn on your device in fastboot mode again. Connect your phone with the PC and open a terminal window. Write the following command in the terminal.

fastboot getvar all

Copy the text that appears on the screen and save it somewhere safe. You will see your actual modelID and CID in the text. Now, we are going to change it to Developer Edition’s MID and CID.

fastboot oem writecid BS_US001
fastboot oem writemid PN0712000

Reboot your phone in fastboot mode again. Now, its time to flash the RUU file.

5. Return to Stock 4.4 Developer Edition ROM using RUU

Relock your bootloader using the following command:

fastboot oem lock

Download the BrightstarUS_WWE_4.19.1540.9.exe from your favorite place to return to stock. This will remove the “Tampered” sign, but your S-OFF will be as it were.

Now, after you turn on your device, you will have a HTC One Developer Edition 🙂 Once you get connected to internet, you will get notification to update your device to Android 4.4.2 Sense 6.0. Download and apply the update, Sense 6.0 is just awesome.

28 thoughts on “Convert Your AT&T HTC One into HTC One Developer Edition and get Sense 6.0”

I have a HTC one with 4.19.401.11, hboot 1.56, HTC__001, locked bootloader, s-on, stock recovery, unrooted, and I would like to convert it to a developer edition so I can receive updates rapidly. Can you pls help me so I won’t brick my device. Do I need to downgrade my hboot or I can simply run the 4. developer ruu?? Thanks

Hi,
I followed your guide and converted my ATT HTC one to developer edition. Is there a way for me to convert the phone to developer edition. If yes, Do I need to flash the Hboot(The phone says I am on 1.54).

I followed the tutorial and it did not work. When i execute the Brightstar***********.exe file, the htc_fastboot.exe crashed and I got error 171. I tried multiple times and the same thing happened. Is there any other way to do it.

This might be the result of two different scenarios: 1. You do not have the proper drivers installed. 2. You are trying to do something that is not allowed by the bootloader. You can flash the Android 4.3 RUU for AT&T first and then try to convert it to Developer Edition. I think that will resolve the issue.

If you are in the US, I would suggest you to OTA to 4.3 and then follow the tutorial for converting to Developer edition. If not, I guess, you can flash the RUU for AT&T 4.3 and then follow the tutorial to convert to developer edition.

No I’m not in the US that’s the problem.
So another question please.
I can’t go from 4.1.2 ATT to a higher version Developer Edition right straight? It must be in same android base?.
My goal is to get KK or L and I thought to get JB4.3 first and then go with OTA.
Thanks a LOT!

But the question is how to go from 4.1.2 to 4.3 ATT if I don’t have OTA option. I got and RUU zip file of Developer Edition 4.1.2.
It is the same result RUU.exe file than RUU.zip file?
Thanks, hoping not annoy

I don’t know how to use RUU zip file. But if you can find a way to use the RUU zip file, then you can convert from AT&T 4.1.2 to DE 4.1.2 and then get the OTA to every other android version eventually.

Eureka. I followed all the steps that you mentioned. And I used RUU file “RUU_M7_UL_JB_50_BrightstarUS_WWE_1.29.1540.16.exe” that you could find easy on the internet (I didn’t use the RUU.zip).
I didn’t have to change MID beacuse ATT en DE are the same, only CID is different.
Then I got OTA’s and I went from JellyBean to Lollipop and everything seems fine.

I followed all the steps except the last one. Is there a way to update it without the Sync Manager? My phone is already S-OFF and I tried RUU_M7_UL_L50_SENSE60_MR_Cingular_US_7.23.502.1_Radio_4M.32.3218.06_10.46.1718.01L_release_424933_signed_2.exe and the Brightsar 4.19 and both showed error 158. What can I do?